﻿Body formed to link SIM issuance to biometric verification

KARACHI: Inspector General of Police (IGP) Sindh Ghulam Hayder Jamali has constituted a committee of DIsG including DIG CIA and Zonal DIsG of Karachi to formulate practical recommendations in close coordination and discussion with Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), Karachi Zone with regard to SIMs issued before introducing Biometric Verification System (BVS) especially in the province of Sindh.

The committee has further been directed to identify the quantum of un-verified SIMs issued and to recommend suitable action for ensuring BVS.

This came out at a meeting held under the chairmanship of Inspector General of Sindh Police. During the meeting thread there discussion was held with a 9-member delegation of PTA here at Central Police Office.

It was discussed/proposed at the meeting that:

(i) Those un-verified prepaid SIMs which are not functioning for more than a month may be blocked.

(ii) PTA to direct cellular companies to bind their customers to get verified their SIMs through BVS within a given frame-work of time.

(iii) NADRA may also be requested in black & white to give access to police with regard to SIMs verification Data.

The delegation of PTA informed the meeting that Joint Working Group (JWG) comprising of senior representative of Ministry of Information Technology, Ministry of Information, NADRA, FIA, IB, PTA etc has already been formed to look into the issue of availability of un-verified SIMs and to device a comprehensive re-verification execution plan through BVS. “The first meeting of JWG was held on November, 24 2014 and the follow up meeting is scheduled on Nov-28, 2014”, the meeting was further informed.

The Sindh Police Officers while expressing their some reservations requested the chair to approach the Ministry of Interior to make few officers of DIG ranks the part of the JWG for achieving fruitful results, as far as Karachi and other parts of Sindh are concerned. The forum agreed to and the formal request would be send shortly.

Ghulam Hayder Jamali directed the Police Officers to draft recommendations in light of the discussion held today with regard to the re-verification of SIMs, issued before BVS, as soon as possible to submit the same in the next meeting which is expected to be held in the first week of next month at Ministry Of Interior Islamabad.